Coalpail.com Forum

Hi

I am back, we got our Shaver Outdoor coal boiler going good for about 3 days then it went out again. We cant seem to keep it going for more then 6 or 8 hours. Once in a while it will last a night, but by morning it is really tough getting it going again. My husband has been talking to a local coal wiz and we think we may have figured out our problem. I want to run it by you guys too. our shaker grate does not cover the entire bottom of the firebox. there is about 6 or 8 inches on either side and at least a foot in back that is not covered. We can get good fires going all the way accross but since half of it doesnt have grates, it just piles up the ashes and eventually suffocates that part of the fire. We have not filled the back part, we didnt see how that could work. Our local guy suggested that we put bricks along the side to create a V so that everything will flow down to where the shaker grates are. That seems to make sense to me, but I am clueless. I would post the pictures I took but I am about as good at technology as I am at coal fires. I have to wait for my kids to do it.

What do you think?

Laurie

I found pictures on the Shaver site
http://www.nextlevelsolutionz.com/pictures-of-out ... rnaces.htm
does that help?

Hi Laurie,

From viewing the website it looks as though this unit is meant to burn wood only. In order to burn coal the boiler needs to have grates that move so the coal fire can be shaken down to remove the ashes. There is no other way to do this.

If the unit you have differs from the ones pictured on the website, it may be a different story.

They have coal burners http://www.nextlevelsolutionz.com/outdoor-coal-bu ... urnace.htm
But they may not be too 'up' on what it takes to burn Anthracite coal!
From their page"NUT COAL: Very small coal about 1/4""
It may be more of a bit coal burner.
The closeup of their grate did not load.
If you have the coal model did you get the Nut grate?

If you're model is the one capecoaler posted, it looks like it would be hard to maintain a coal fire in it. To burn coal well in a hand fired unit, the entire bottom of the firebox must be grates especially if the coal you're using produces a lot of ash.

lauriecoke wrote: Our local guy suggested that we put bricks along the side to create a V so that everything will flow down to where the shaker grates are.

Your "local guy" is on the right track but it would be best if the bricks are as close to vertical as possible. You want the ash to settle directly on the grates so when you shake it will easily fall through and not get "stuck" on anything, like the slope of the fire bricks for instance.

You could try to position fire bricks to keep the coal bed completely on the grates.

Whatever you do, don't give up.

I looked at the web page, looks like they fitted a movable grate to the same unit. I can't enlarge the grate pictures either, but it doesn't look like it would work well with Anthracite.

From the little research I have been able to do online, it looks like they took a wood burner and just added a shaker grate. the grate is about 2" higher then the flat spots on the sides. We just went to the store and got some bricks to try. I'll let you know how it goes. Laurie

you got fire brick, correct?
You should be able make the section smaller, so the coal is on the shaker grates better....

Well, we tried the bricks for a day, they seemed to help a lot so we had someone make steel plates for us. They are working well getting the coal over the grates, but we still cant keep the fire burning overnight. Now we are playing with the draft, and getting some mixed results. It is not so bad starting the fire every morning, but we are running out of the wood we had for starting and are not sure about what to do when that is gone. Is there any kind of coal starter that we can use? Any other suggestions? Thanks.

Laurie

Is the coal completely burned up when you check in the mornings or is there unburnt coal?

Both. Some days it is burned down to almost nothing but most days it is like it just went out leaving lots of partially burned chunks and a lot of ash. We have been playing with the shutter on the blower motor some, but still haven't quite gotten it to burn the same for any 2 days. It lasted good last night, but I think the house water temp was satisfied all day today, so it never called for more heat and the blower didnt turn on. By this afternoon it had just gone out leaving a pile of partially burned coal and ash. It seems to need shaking more often, but that isnt possible through the night or during the days when we are at work. We have 180 degree water in the house, we cant turn that up much more.

This is way more work then we were hoping for.

Laurie

You need a setting to keep the fire alive, a minimum setting.
How does the 'shaker' work?